Just two weeks after being sworn in, and a week after being sworn in again, Newark Mayor Luis Quintana has left town.

Newark political observers will recall that former Mayor Cory Booker was often chided for his frequent out-of-town trips and Quintana was often the one doing the chiding.

“The absence and arrogance of this mayor needs to be put in check,” Quintana said at one testy budget hearing last year.

But the city’s new mayor was on a plane last week to Seattle with Councilwoman Mildred Crump for a conference on city government. The trip was scheduled before Quintana took office and both are paying their own way, officials said.

“Mayor Quintana is proud to be at the Congress of Cities conference discussing best practices with other municipal leaders from around the country,” city spokeswoman Dreena Whitfield said in an email. “He was an ambassador for the city as a councilman and will continue to be an advocate for the city in his new capacity as mayor. Mayor Quintana remains in close contact with City Hall as he tends to official business on this long-planned trip.”

But the timing of the trip has raised concerns at City Hall. Business Administrator Julien Neals and the city’s top lawyer are in Rome for an American Bar Association convention, officials said and former chief of staff Modia Butler now works for Booker, who is now in the U.S. Senate.

So who’s running the show?

L’Tanya Williamson, director of the department of child and family well-being is the current acting mayor, city documents indicate. Quintana, Neals and Corporation Counsel, Anna Pereira are scheduled to return tomorrow.

As Booker often pointed out, in this age of advanced digital communication, mayoral decisions can be made by phone or email. Quintana eschews much of the social media of his tech savvy predecessor but he still has a cell phone and a blackberry.

A mayor’s physical presence is required more for major emergencies and natural disasters, city leaders said.

While it’s a little harrowing to have so many in the line of succession out of town for the weekend, East Ward Councilman Augusto Amador said he wasn’t too worried.

“I was surpised as probably you were,” he said when asked about the absences. “However I think we can probably tolerate that situation for a weekend as long as something of an emergency nature doesn’t happen.”

He said residents shouldn’t worry about normal functions like police, fire and trash pickup.

“I think the city runs under the responsibility of the different department directors,” he said.